The Soul Hypothesis - by Mark C Baker & Stewart Goetz (Paperback)

About the Book

Experts from different fields argue that there are good reasons to believe in the existence of the soul as distinct from the physical body.

Book Synopsis

What do we mean when we speak about the soul? What are the arguments for the existence of the soul as distinct from the physical body? Do animals have souls? What is the difference between the mind and the soul? The Soul Hypothesis brings together experts from philosophy, linguistics and science to discuss the validity of these questions in the modern world.

They contend that there is an aspect of the nature of human beings that is not reducible to the matter that makes up our bodies. This perspective is part of a family of views traditionally classified in philosophy as substance dualism, and has something serious in common with the ubiquitous human belief in the soul.

The Soul Hypothesis presents views from a range of sciences and the resulting big picture shows, more clearly than could a single author with one area of expertise, that there is room for a soul hypothesis.

Review Quotes

"Baker and Goetz have assembled an impressive interdisciplinary team of scholars to address questions about the existence and nature of the soul. The book is unique is combining philosophical and scientific arguments for dualism, and the result is a rigorous, exciting, persuasive presentation of the issues. The Soul Hypothesis is an excellent text that is sure to provoke a vigorous dialog about its content. I highly recommend it." -- J. P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Biola University, USA, and author of Consciousness and the Existence of God (Routledge, 2008)

"Sooner or later, the contributors to The Soul Hypothesis warn, scientists will pinpoint the exact three neurons whose firing accompanies the thought of our deciding to make a phone call or, if you prefer, deciding to get up and get a beer from the refrigerator. As ever more such micro-couplings are observed, we will-so scientists tell us with unseemly glee-gradually come to see that our cherished conscious life is nothing but a long series of electrical impulses, not an autonomous realm of free will and free thought. [...] The book's contributors set out this scientific challenge fully and engagingly, but they also expose its fallacies.The Soul Hypothesis performs yeoman service in rescuing the human capacities for consciousness and voluntary action from scientific challenge." -- The Wall Street Journal

"The Soul Hypothesis is a refreshingly open-minded collection of new essays, all of them philosophically and scientifically well-informed, demonstrating that soul-body dualism is far from being a defunct hypothesis and, indeed, is in many respects more promising than any of the forms of physicalism that have come to dominate western philosophy in recent decades. It is unusual in approaching its topic from a wide variety of angles, including those of linguistics and modern relativistic and quantum physics. Without ever sacrificing rigor, the contributors set out their case for the soul in a clear and accessible way, which will make this volume exciting reading for both specialists and non-specialists, whether their background is in philosophy, science, or theology. The editors do a first-rate job of tying the essays together and providing a general framework for understanding the key issues at stake." -- E.J. Lowe, Professor of Philosophy, Durham University, UK.

About the Author

Mark C. Baker is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University, USA. He is the author of five books, including The Atoms of Language (Basic, 2001) and The Syntax of Agreement and Concord (Cambridge, 2008). Stewart Goetz is Ross Frederick Wicks Distinguished Professor in Philosophy and Religion at Ursinus College, PA, USA. He is co-author with Charles Taliaferro of Naturalism (Eerdmans, 2008) and A Brief History of the Soul (Blackwell, 2011). He serves on the board of directors for Blackwell's Philosophy Compass.